Making memories at Sydney Mines rink

James (Crow) Foster stands near centre ice at the Sydney Mines and District Community Centre. Foster has been working at the rink as an operator for 40 years. - Jeremy Fraser

James Foster celebrates 40 years as community centre employee

SYDNEY MINES, N.S.

They say time flies when you’re having fun and that’s certainly been the case for James Foster.

Foster, known by his childhood nickname Crow, has worked at the Sydney Mines and District Community Centre as an operator for 40 years, which he says have been the best years of his life.

“I’ve loved every minute of working at the rink,” said Foster. “My years of service are starting to catch up on me now, I have aches and pains and everything, but I don’t mind it.”

The Sydney Mines native, who considers himself the community rink rat, found his passion for the arena at a young age, attending the facility to play hockey with his father.

The 59-year-old became more involved in the rink shortly after his cousin Bobby Foster was hired.

“My friends and I use to come up and help him, we use to clean the snow off the machine as well as sweep the dressing rooms and stands,” said Foster.

“When he would work on night shift I would stay around … at the end of the second ice rental they use to take the tractor out and let me dump the snow … I loved it.”

The employees began trusting Foster with the ice resurfacer, which at the time was an old farm tractor.

“They taught me how to drive the tractor and they stayed on the back of it as I was doing the driving (on the ice),” said Foster. “They started to let me shave the ice by myself, so every night I was excited to go to the rink and lend a hand.

“I still remember when they taught me how to flood the ice and that was a lot harder … I was all over the ice the first time and they told me to slow down and to take my time and eventually I caught on.”

At the time, he was helping at the local venue, Foster was also working weekend shifts at The Mad Potters in Sydney Mines.

One day, Mel Birmingham, rink manager at the time, approached Foster with an offer, guaranteeing him 40 hours a week to work at the rink. The manager was looking for someone to start later that day.

“I didn’t know what to do, I knew I wanted to work at the rink, but I didn’t want to disappoint anyone,” said Foster. “I went to Sr. Rooney (who was in charge of The Mad Potters, a pottery making business) and told her I could get steady work at the rink and she told me that she didn’t know how long The Mad Potters would be around and that I should take the job.”

About 10 minutes later, Foster was given the keys to the rink and started his first official shift — that was 40 years ago this year — and he’s been there ever since.

Foster, whose duties include flooding the ice and operating the ice plant, never expected to still be working at the rink today.

“I thought I would have been here for a couple of years, but 40 years that’s something else,” he said. “I had all the bad shifts when I first started, I worked every weekend — I was the lowest on the pole and I worked all night shifts, but that didn’t bother me.”

Prior to CBRM amalgamation, Foster had hoped the town of Sydney Mines would have taken over the operation of the rink which was incorporated as a registered charity in 1973.

“If (the town) would have taken over I would likely have paid into a pension, but that didn’t happen, so when I leave here I won’t have anything,” said Foster.

The Sydney Mines and District Community Centre has changed quite a bit over the years — all for the better, said Foster.

“When I first started I painted all the lines by hand with a brush, but now we have handles and we just scoop right around and it’s a lot faster,” he said.

“It was twice as hard back then… it took us maybe nine hours to put the lines in, but this year it only took a couple of hours and we were done everything.”

Foster said although he doesn’t have a pension, he wouldn’t change his decision to work at the rink.

“If I didn’t like it I would have left,” he said. “Everyone was good to me and I was happy, so I stayed, and I have no regrets about it.”

Foster doesn’t know for sure when his time will end at the arena but noted he would like to see the facility get a new Zamboni prior to any retirement plans.

BIO BOX

James (Crow) Foster:

• Hometown: Sydney Mines

• Age: 59

• Occupation: Operator at the Sydney Mines and District Community Centre for the past 40 years